After National Service in the Royal Air Force he read geography at University College, Oxford, graduating with a first.
He undertook research into industrial location, receiving a B.Litt, and spent a year at the University of California graduate business school as a King George VI Fellow.
He fought Norwich South in 1972, and unseated the Conservative Thomas Stuttaford, a local GP, at the February 1974 general election.
[citation needed] He was re-elected again in 1979, and became an opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry, but failed to gain a position in the shadow cabinet as a Tribune group candidate.
With Robert Sheldon and Norman St John-Stevas, he was instrumental in the creation of the system of departmental Select committees.